The 2014 Moontower Comedy Festival Lineup Is Stacked

For years, the Moontower Comedy Festival has brought the biggest names in comedy to Austin and 2014 is no exception.

Photo thanks to Moontower Comedy Festival

Austin has always been a comedy friendly town, with venues ranging from traditional comedy clubs to improv andindie comedy theaters to sketch comedy theaters. In just the last few years, however, comedy has also taken a prominent place in some of Austin's best known music and art festivals. Both South By Southwest and Fun Fun Fun Fest have expanded their comedy coverage to the point where they're distinct parts of each event.

However, there's comedy-as-part-of-a-music-festival and there's a full blown festival of comedy. Which is exactly what the Moontower Comedy Festival is. Moontower brings both the biggest names in comedy as well as some of the best up and coming acts to various venues in Austin - and 2014 is shaping up to be another dream come true for comedy fans in central Texas.

Here's a look at some of the acts scheduled for this year's festival.

The Kids In the Hall - The legendary sketch comedy group from Canada caught the attention of Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels in the mid 1980s. Since then, the five of them - separately or as a group - have been featured in stage shows, movies, TV shows and music videos. Now they bring both new and classic characters to the Paramount Theater as part of the festival in 2014.

Demetri Martin- Low-key and understated, Martin made a name for himself with his easygoing style and observant, if absurd, one-liners. He's turned that success into a number of popular albums and TV specials, a short-lived Comedy Central show and even a major role in Ang Lee's "Chasing Woodstock". He performs at the Paramount on April 23rd.

Mike Birbiglia - Birbiglia first gained national attention with his "My Secret Public Journal" segments on NPR's This American Life. He's gone on to perform two very successful off-Broadway one man shows - "Sleepwalk With Me" and "My Girlfriend's Boyfriend", the former of which was turned into an independent film Birbiglia directed himself. He brings his current show to the Paramount on April 25th.

Hannibal Buress - With a wit sharp enough to land him a gig writing for Saturday Night Live, Buress has found plenty of success on his own as a comic. In 2012, Comedy Central bestowed upon him that year's award for Best Club Comic. since then, he's released albums, aired a number of TV specials and appears on the network's Broad City. He brings that same wit to the Paramount on April 23rd.

Maria Bamford - One of the featured acts on the now-legendary Comedians of Comedy tour, Bamford has proven to be one of the most unique voices in comedy working today - and we mean that almost literally. Few other comics have the ability to switch voices on a whim to punctuate a joke like Bamford and that makes her one of the funniest comics - of any gender - working today. Find out for yourself at the Paramount of April 24th.

Dennis Miller - One of the more polarizing comics working today, no one can deny this former SNL cast member's gift for topical humor and random references. Once parlaying his successful run as that show's Weekend Update anchor into a position on the Monday Night Football broadcast team (yes, that's a thing that actually happened), Miller has more recently gained attention for his more outspoken Conservative views. Agree with him or not, Miller is still an extremely funny comic (and he was pretty good in that Sandra Bullock movie about computers, too). See him at the Paramount on April 24th.

Aziz Ansari - This Parks & Recreation cast member is one of the most popular young comics working today. He has three popular stand-up specials (all of which are available on Netflix), has been featured on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine and had a role in the comedy flick "30 Minutes or Less". Not only is Aziz awesome, he's so awesome that he's apparently too awesome for the actual festival. Ansari will be performing April 18th and 19th at the Bass Concert Hall as a special festival kick-off attraction.